Telltale's Borderlands Game Began With A Night Of Drinking

We have a lot of things to thank alcohol for. It makes our airplane flights shorter and our winters warmer. Today we can add Tales from the Borderlands, the upcoming collaboration between Telltale Games and Gearbox Software, to the list of alcohol's accomplishments.

The seed for Tales from the Borderlands was first planted in 2012, when the two developers met backstage at the Spike VGAs.

"Gearbox was sitting at table one and we were sitting at table two — we were there for The Walking Dead. We got to talking a little bit, and I don't remember when it the night it became, 'we should do this thing," but it happened over a few cocktails," said Steve Allison, senior vice president of publishing at Telltale Games, in a chat with Polygon.

"We could have easily left it and chalked it up to too much tequila, but we followed up when we got home and they remembered the conversation. The Borderlands universe has so much story potential, all those great characters. There's a narrative there in Borderlands 2 but it serves a certain purpose, and we can serve a difference purpose with it for fans of the franchise."

Tales from the Borderlands isn't a co-op shooter like the previous Borderlands games. Instead, it's a more character-driven experience that's closer to Telltale's other works, such as Wolf Among Us or The Walking Dead. The players aren't superpowered Vault Hunters. Instead, the game stars a well-dressed woman named Fiona and a male companion who is equally unimposing. You can see both of them in the screenshots and trailer below.

Gameplay details for Tales haven't been formally announced yet so it's not clear how closely the game will resemble other Telltale creations. Allison mentioned in the Polygon interview that it will still have guns. Probably not thousands of randomized guns, though. Also, guns or not, the combat could still be limited to Quick Time Events.

Telltale announced Tales from the Borderlands at Spike VGX this month. They also unveiled a Game of Thrones game during the show. That game wasn't conceived during a night of drinking but should be pretty fun anyway.

Both Game of Thrones and Tales from the Borderlands will launch in 2014. The studio also plans to release additional episodes of The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us next year.